This is my letter to the future

This is my letter to the future,
That cannot write to me,—
The simple news that Nature told,
With tender majesty.
Her message is committed
To hands I cannot see;
For love of her, sweet citizens,
Behave more tenderly!

Other Inspiration

Letters to the Future, a group formed to draw attention to the importance of the upcoming U.N. climate talks, is collecting letters from authors, artists, scientists and others, written to future generations of their own families, predicting the success or failure of the U.N. gathering, to be held in Paris this December. The letters may be read here.

Thanks, Deborah. Emily did most of the writing. I keep wondering (and in line with Diana’s comment) as to why a poem seems the right response? On one level, it seems that a more analytic approach would require a discussion of global capitalism and the place of individuals and opinions within it. Nothing wrong with such an analysis, of course, but speaking from the heart, as a poem can, seems simpler.

William,
We’ve had several poems submitted recently, and I think you are exactly correct – speaking from the heart is a powerful way to address this topic. We were hoping for that when we asked people to imagine their grandchildren’s grandchildren…
Thanks again for participating in our project.
Deborah

Oh, Deborah, excuse me; I did not realize how central you were to the Letters to the Future project! Congratulations to you and your colleagues. I have spread word of it to many people, all of whom have been enthusiastic.

Thanks Ed. My sense is that someone retouched the portrait, giving it some appropriate redness. (I “am small, like the Wren, and my Hair is bold, like the Chestnut Bur – and my eyes, like the Sherry in the Glass, that the Guest leaves.”) I am also intrigued, let’s call it, by the fact that her original poem, begins wonderfully, unforgettably — “This is my letter to the world, / That never wrote to me” — yet I have not found it one of her richest poems. And yet, when put in the context of this idea of a “letter to the future” (regarding environmental devastation and our fears of it), her words come to new life. Somewhere I wrote — can’t find it now — that it may prove that what the United States had to give to the world was, above all, Dickinson’s poetry.

Surviving the Twenty-First Century

What is This?

Now with 1,900 followers, anglophones et francophones, spanning the globe. (The author is pleased, too, to have made a Best Essays list of Notable Essayists.)

Meanwhile, this collection of short and longer essays, aphorisms, poems and quotations continues to expand. From another dear reader: “I am constantly waiting for new posts because your work is quite amazing.”